UK hospitals are on the verge of being overwhelmed but vaccines provide a spark of hope, the head of the Oxford Vaccine Group said on Monday.
Prof Andrew Pollard made the remarks after becoming the third person in the world to receive the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine outside trial conditions.
Six hospitals in England will this week administer the first of about 530,000 doses Britain has currently.
The drug will arrive at hundreds of sites in the coming days and the government hopes to deliver tens of millions of doses within months, provided AstraZeneca can increase supply.
Prof Pollard said the vaccine was being distributed at a critical moment for the country. "We are at the point of being overwhelmed by this disease," he told BBC Breakfast.
The UK has ordered about 100 million doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine – enough to immunise 50 million people with the two shots required.
Last month, Britain became the first country to use the vaccine produced by Pfizer and BioNTech, which has to be stored at ultra-low temperatures.
The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is considered easier to distribute as it can be kept in a normal fridge, and costs less than $5 a dose.
It was also developed in record time, taking less than 12 months from conception to approval, a process that typically takes five to 10 years.
Regulators say the vaccine is on average 70 per cent effective in protecting against Covid-19 when taken as two full doses eight to 12 weeks apart.
“So far the evidence indicates there shouldn’t be a problem against this new variant,” Prof Pollard told Sky News when asked of its efficacy against the more infectious variant.
Prof Pollard, a paediatrician, received the shot because health workers are prioritised under the UK government’s staggered vaccination programme.
He assured people the shot was safe and urged people to take it when they are called.
“We are only going to make an impact when vaccines are in people’s arms,” he said. “They do nothing in the glass vial.”
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Can NRIs vote in the election?
Indians residing overseas cannot cast their ballot abroad
Non-resident Indians or NRIs can vote only by going to a polling booth in their home constituency
There are about 3.1 million NRIs living overseas
Indians have urged political parties to extend the right to vote to citizens residing overseas
A committee of the Election Commission of India approved of proxy voting for non-resident Indians
Proxy voting means that a person can authorise someone residing in the same polling booth area to cast a vote on his behalf.
This option is currently available for the armed forces, police and government officials posted outside India
A bill was passed in the lower house of India’s parliament or the Lok Sabha to extend proxy voting to non-resident Indians
However, this did not come before the upper house or Rajya Sabha and has lapsed
The issue of NRI voting draws a huge amount of interest in India and overseas
Over the past few months, Indians have received messages on mobile phones and on social media claiming that NRIs can cast their votes online
The Election Commission of India then clarified that NRIs could not vote online
The Election Commission lodged a complaint with the Delhi Police asking it to clamp down on the people spreading misinformation
TOURNAMENT INFO
Fixtures
Sunday January 5 - Oman v UAE
Monday January 6 - UAE v Namibia
Wednesday January 8 - Oman v Namibia
Thursday January 9 - Oman v UAE
Saturday January 11 - UAE v Namibia
Sunday January 12 – Oman v Namibia
UAE squad
Ahmed Raza (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Mohammed Usman, CP Rizwan, Waheed Ahmed, Zawar Farid, Darius D’Silva, Karthik Meiyappan, Jonathan Figy, Vriitya Aravind, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Basil Hameed, Chirag Suri
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